Battle of Mons 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 23 August 1914 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1914 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Battle of the Frontiers | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.4789, 3.9501 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Mons, or the First Battle of Mons to differentiate it from another battle later in the war, was the first big engagement of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with the German Army on the French–German frontier. At Mons, the British Army attempted to hold the line of the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army.
Although the British fought well and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the numerically superior Germans, they were forced to retreat due to being outnumbered and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army (General Charles Lanrezac) which exposed the British right flank. Though initially planned as a simple tactical withdrawal and executed in good order, the British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks and took the BEF to the outskirts of Paris, before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, at the First Battle of the Marne.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Mons (revision 1379541977), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Mons (1746) 1746 · 3 km
- Siege of Mons (1572) 1572 · 3 km
- Siege of Mons (1691) 1691 · 3 km
- Battle of Saint-Denis (1678) 1678 · 5 km
- Battle of Jemappes 1792 · 5 km
- Battle of Grand-Reng 1794 · 18 km
Other battles of the Battle of the Frontiers
- Battle of Charleroi 1914
- Battle of Grand Couronné 1914
- Battle of Halen 1914
- Battle of Lorraine 1914
- Battle of Rossignol 1914
- Battle of Sarrebourg 1914
- Battle of the Ardennes 1914
All 8 battles of the Battle of the Frontiers →
Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · World War I era battles